More ink equals more blood, newspaper coverage of terrorist incidents leads directly to more attacks. It’s a macabre example of win-win in what economists call a « common-interest game. Both the media and terrorists benefit from terrorist incidents. Terrorists get free publicity for themselves and their cause. The media, meanwhile, make money « as reports of terror attacks increase newspaper sales and the number of television viewers. Bruno S. Frey (University of Zurich) et Dominic Rohner (Cambridge)

More ink equals more blood, claim two economists who say that newspaper coverage of terrorist incidents leads directly to more attacks.

It’s a macabre example of win-win in what economists call a « common-interest game, » say Bruno S. Frey of the University of Zurich and Dominic Rohner of Cambridge University.

« Both the media and terrorists benefit from terrorist incidents, » their study contends. Terrorists get free publicity for themselves and their cause. The media, meanwhile, make money « as reports of terror attacks increase newspaper sales and the number of television viewers. »

The researchers counted direct references to terrorism between 1998 and 2005 in the New York Times and Neue Zuercher Zeitung, a respected Swiss newspaper. They also collected data on terrorist attacks around the world during that period. Using a statistical procedure called the Granger Causality Test, they attempted to determine whether more coverage directly led to more attacks.

The results, they said, were unequivocal: Coverage caused more attacks, and attacks caused more coverage — a mutually beneficial spiral of death that they say has increased because of a heightened interest in terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001.

One partial solution: Deny groups publicity by not publicly naming the attackers, Frey said. But won’t they become known anyway through informal channels such as the Internet?

Not necessarily, Frey said. « Many experiences show us that in virtually all cases several groups claimed responsibility for a particular terrorist act. I would like the same rule that obtains within a country: Nobody can be called a criminal — in our case a terrorist — if this has not been established by a court of law. »

As I’m sure you all know, a few days ago there was a shooting in Virginia. A man named Vester Flanagan opened fire on two former colleagues on live tv. He also recorded his own footage of the event. While reading about the event, I read some excerpts of his manifesto the media was releasing. And I have to say, anyone who knew him could have seen this coming. People like him have nothing left to live for, and the only thing left to do is lash out at a society that has abandoned them. His family described him as alone, no partner/lover. A victim not only of his own perception but also of our social media soaked enviroment. He posted the footage on facebook and twitter as well tweeting while he was running from the cops because he wanted the world to see his actions, much like many others post menial and trivial details of their life online and expect us to see it. Only his was at least a bit more interesting. On an interesting note, I have noticed that so many people like him are all alone and unknown, yet when they spill a little blood, the whole world knows who they are. A man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone. His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems the more people you kill, the more your’re in the limelight.

The suspect, 41-year-old Vester Flanagan, shot himself as police pursued him on a Virginia highway hours after the shooting. Flanagan, who was African-American, died later at a hospital, police said. The journalists who were killed were reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27. Both journalists were white, as is a woman who they were interviewing. The woman was wounded and was in stable condition, a hospital spokesman said. Social media postings by a person who appeared to be Flanagan indicated the suspect had grievances against the station, CBS affiliate WDBJ7 in Roanoke, Virginia, which let him go two years ago. The person also posted video that appeared to show the attack filmed from the shooter’s vantage point. Flanagan sent ABC News a 23-page fax about two hours after the shooting, saying his attack was triggered by the June 17 mass shooting at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, the network said. Nine people were killed, and a white man has been charged in that rampage. The network cited Flanagan as saying he had suffered racial discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying at work. He had been attacked by black men and white women, and for being a gay black man, he said. « The church shooting was the tipping point … but my anger has been building steadily, » ABC News cited the fax as saying. « I’ve been a human powder keg for a while … just waiting to go BOOM! »

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office said Friday former WDBJ-TV employee Vester Lee Flanagan II identified with « individuals who have committed domestic acts of violence and mass murder, as well as the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., » based on writings and other evidence seized from the 41-year-old’s Roanoke apartment.

America’s chickens…are coming home to roost. We took this country by terror, away from the Sioux, the Apache, the Arowak, the Comanche, the Arapahoe, the Navajo. Terrorism. We took Africans from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism. We bombed Granada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel. We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenagers and toddlers, pregnant mothers, and hardworking fathers. We bombed Qaddafi’s home and killed his child. Blessed are they who bash your children’s head against a rock. We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to payback for the attack on our embassy, killed hundreds of hardworking people, mothers and fathers who left home to go that day not knowing that they would never get back home. We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye. Kids playing in the playground, mothers picking up children from school, civilians, not soldiers, people just trying to make it day by day. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and Black South Africans and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.

WIN-WIN SITUATION (What next when a jihadist outfit dedicated to the elimination of its enemy launching a cross-border assault will enjoy the balance of press sympathy even when it admits what it’s up to ?)

Why would Hamas blow up the narrative of peaceful resistance in this case? It could be because they know their Arab-speaking audience is different from their English-speaking one. Among Muslims, they want to be seen as the tip of the spear of “resistance.” That means taking credit for the Gaza operation in Arab media.

Hamas may have concluded that the death toll among actual civilians last weekend was sufficiently high, and the balance of opinion in western media so overwhelmingly in the Palestinians’ favor, that acknowledging their own violent intentions won’t spoil the PR victory in this case. We may have reached a point where a jihadist outfit dedicated to the elimination of its enemy launching a cross-border assault will enjoy the balance of press sympathy even when it admits what it’s up to.

Would the confrontation have been more tolerable if Hamas had managed to suicide-bomb a few Israeli soldiers? If Al Qaeda were to stage an assault on a U.S. border outpost, how many Americans would need to die in repelling the attack to avoid being accused of perpetrating a “massacre”? If the IDF had let a few thousand Palestinians through the fence and into Israel to do whatever it is they planned to do once inside, what would the death toll on both sides look like today?

WHAT RELIGION OF PEACE ? (Guess who inspired by videos just planned to use his hatred for disbelievers and a stolen van to conduct a Nice-like truck attack at Washington airport or National Harbor in a way designed for maximum publicity ?)

A Germantown man who was reportedly inspired by ISIS, allegedly stole a van to use as a weapon against pedestrians at National Harbor. Rondell Henry, 28, of Germantown, Md., is charged by criminal complaint with interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle. According to the detention memo, for two years, Henry has harbored “hatred” for those who don’t practice the Muslim faith. Allegedly inspired by videos he watched of foreign terrorists, Henry decided to conduct a vehicular attack, similar to the 2016 truck attack in Nice, France, for which ISIS claimed responsibility. After he stole the van, Henry drove around, arriving at Dulles International Airport in Virginia at around 5 a.m. on March 27. The government claims Henry left the U-Haul and entered the terminal to try to find his way through security, allegedly to harm “disbelievers” in a way designed for “maximum publicity,” After he tried to breach Dulles’ security perimeter for more than two hours, Henry allegedly returned to the U-Haul. Henry then allegedly drove the U-Haul from Virginia to the National Harbor in Maryland, arriving at around 10 a.m. He then allegedly parked the U-Haul and walked around a popular part of National Harbor. The motion then alleges Henry finally broke into a boat to hide overnight. Police found the U-Haul by the following morning. When Henry leaped over the security fence from the boat dock, Prince George’s County Police officers arrested him…